“Elizabeth Hand has created another fascinating puzzle and another instant classic. If you’re a fan of intelligent page-turners, this one’s for you.”—Jeff Vandermeer

Strobe-lit against an apocalyptic background of rock and roll, rave culture, fast drugs, and transgressive photography, Hard Light continues the breathless, breathtaking saga of Cassandra Neary in the series that began with Generation Loss and Available Dark.

Fleeing Reykjavik and a cluster of cult murders, Cass lands in London to rendezvous with her longtime lover Quinn, a person of interest to both Interpol and the Russian mob. Only Quinn doesn’t show up. Alone in London and fearing the worst, Cass hooks up with a singer-songwriter with her own dark past, who brings her to the wrong party. Cass becomes entangled with the party’s host, Mallo Tierney, an eccentric gangster with a penchant for cigar cutters and neatly-wrapped packages, and a trio of dissolute groupies connected to a notorious underground filmmaker.

Forced to run Mallo’s contraband, Cass is suddenly enmeshed in a web of murder, betrayal, and artistic and sexual obsession that extends from London to the stark beauty of Land’s End, where she uncovers an archaeological enigma that could change our view of human history?if she survives.